Description
Appearing in 1949 and listed until 1971, the Gibson L-4C cutaway archtop was a fully acoustic cutaway archtop, with a solid, carved spruce top and maple back and sides. In later years, floating pickups were often added, including 'Johnny Smith' and deArmond Rhythm Chief styles. By 1965, Gibson offered a floating pickup as a factory option.
This lovely guitar is in overall good clean condition with light wear to the body and finish. Fret wear is moderate to heavy particularly in the lower positions. It's presently strung with round wound strings.
A brown Gibson USA hard shell case is included and contains strings and service records.
Design, Materials and Construction
The Gibson L-4C shares a Florentine Cutaway body shape with the better known ES-175, which appeared in the same year, but the L-4C is all solid wood with a carved Sitka Spruce top and carved Maple back while the ES-175's body is all maple laminate to help suppress feedback. The body blocks, linings and neck are Mahogany, with Rosewood for the bridge and bound fingerboard. This instrument was one of the last runs to use Rosewood sourced from Brazil.
Hardware
Gibson Deluxe tuners with plastic Keystone buttons, likely by Kluson are at the head, paired with the distinctive heavy trapeze tailpiece shared with the L-7 and a few other electric models. The bridge is the original wooden adjustable height part carved for intonation, and of Brazilian Rosewood.
The gold-plated Johnny Smith style fingerboard mounted pickup and pickguard set were likely installed as aftermarket items but Gibson thoughtfully shaped the underside of the fingerboard tag to accommodate that mount. The single volume control and the mini-plug output jack are mounted on a the faux-tortoise pickguard. This pickguard is likely a relatively recent replacement as originals were black.
Also installed but not active is an internal microphone, apparently accessed via a tail-block mounted output jack.
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There are no refunds or returns on used items unless authorized in advance by a Twelfth Fret Sales Associate at time of sale. View Our Full Terms Here |
DETAILS:
- Instrument Model: L-4C
- Instrument Manufacturer: Gibson
- Instrument year: 1964
- Instrument Finish: Gloss Tobacco Sunburst
- Instrument Class: Archtop Acoustic Guitars
- Instrument serial number: 194741, dates to 1964 at Kalamazoo Michigan
- Country of Origin:
- Instrument Condition: USA
- Playing Condition: Good
- Right-handed
- CITIES Documentation Required: Yes
- Instrument Weight Imperial: 5.5 lbs
- Instrument Weight Metric: 2.5 kgs
- Scale Length Imperial: 24.65 in
- Scale Length Metric: 626mm
- Nut Width Imperial: 1.70in
- Nut Width Metric: 43.19 mm
- Case included: Yes
- Case original: No
- Case Type: Hard Shell Brown Gibson USA
- Items in Case: Strings, service records
- Consignment: Yes
- Product ID: 190611
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There are no refunds or returns on used items unless authorized in advance by a Twelfth Fret Sales Associate at time of sale. View Our Full Terms Here |